RADFORD, Va. – Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance used his first solo campaign rallies Monday to attack Vice President Kamala Harris a day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
Hundreds of people packed the Dedmon Center on Radford University’s campus to hear from the VP pick just a week after getting the call from former President Donald Trump.
The Ohio senator campaigned at his former high school in Middletown before stopping in Radford, Virginia, two venues intended to play up his conservative populist appeal across the Rust Belt and small-town America.
Very early on and throughout Vance’s speech, the Ohio Senator criticized the Biden campaign and even more so, Vice President Harris.
“Don’t give her a chance to run away from the Biden record. The Biden record is the Kamela Harris record. Given what we know about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris probably did a lot more than Joe Biden did over the last three years,” Vance said.
Prior to becoming a prominent conservative in the U.S. Senate, Vance was best known for his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which described his experience growing up in a working-class family in Appalachia.
In his remarks, he emphasized that he and Trump would work to bring back American jobs, especially in manufacturing, and lower the cost of items such as groceries and housing.
“I will fight, President Trump will fight,” Vance said. “We will fight every single day to restore an America that works for you, for your children, and your grandchildren.”
Vance would continue to come back to his issues with Harris, even calling out comments she made about him.
“She said a couple of days ago, that I showed no loyalty to the United States. I don’t know Kamela. I served in the United States Marine Corps and I built a business. What the hell have you done other than collect a government check for the past 20 years,” Vance said.
Vance closed out with talking about the nation he wants to see his kids grow up in. He argues in order to make it happen, people need to vote Trump back into office.
Trump will be holding a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday.